foolish, but i fear long flights

Who has a fear of flying, funnily enough I do. Some 20 odd years ago I had a dream, if I do dream I don't remember, this dream I do. I dreamt I was in a plane accident, it's spooked me ever since. I'm not bothered by short legs, say 2 hours, but long distance gets me going big time, although once onboard I'm generally ok, sometimes my mind often drifts back to the dream, my mind starts ticking.

Funny because I had PPL through the 70's and 80's logging up a lot of hours, I know flying is one of the safest ways to travel. The crash landing of the Asiana Airlines plane at San Francisco Airport yesterday has prompted me to write this post, I believe events happen in three's.

We are booked out of Stockholm on the 20th July for Frankfurt, Germany, flying with Ryanair, not my favourite airline. 22nd July Frankfurt to Vancouver flying with a Canadian Airline, Air Transat.

I'm again spooked, I had so much trouble booking this it was almost like someone was telling me not to take the flight, then the crash landing last yesterday. The site I use to check flight information and prices is Skyscanner.com, once you select a flight and price that suits, you are directed to other internet booking sites to complete the booking. I chose one, had trouble, another, had trouble and so on, all gave me grief for one reason or another, in the end, out of desperation I phoned the company in Canada to make the booking, cost more but I was over the $ by now. The guy who took my call, was Mohamed Xxxxxxxx, I guess you are getting my drift here, funny how you look at names and things.

Mohamed was a great guy, very helpful and we finally had a booking and confirmation, all set for the 22nd

You might be asking why I chose Air Transit, well they were the only airline going direct, the flight time is just over 10 hours, other airlines have one or two stops, waiting in airports is not my way of having fun.

I'm taking the flight, know I'm stupid with my thoughts, if I stood aside and didn't take the flight I've succumbed to fear, can't do that. But if something does happen you have a scoop for the press. You are the only ones I mentioned this to, no one, not even my wife knows. Yes this is a public forum, but here I'm anonymous

Tomorrow we head north to Lulea, Sweden, then cross into Finland driving up as far as Ivalo, 300klms above the Arctic circle, this will be the most norther point I've been to and some 15,652 kilometres from home.

Dtrad